Legg Mason scopes ETF business

Legg Mason is throwing its hat into the ETF ring.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the brokerage firm has filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch actively managed exchange-traded funds.

The application itself will take months to move through the system and according to company spokeswoman Mary Athridge, they are focusing on fixed income and equity strategies. Mason’s rival – T. Rowe Price Group Inc. – filed their own application in December of last year. It is assumed that Legg Mason is developing its own suite of funds.

With assets under management of $682 billion as of December 31, 2009, Legg Mason is one of the top ten asset managers in the world serving individual and institutional investors in 190 countries on six continents.